Here’s What It Looks Like To Jump Off A 1,000-Foot Cliff When Your Parachute Doesn’t Open

Rick Chandler

6:46 pm, May 21st, 2013

When you film yourself base jumping and most of the it turns out to be ambulance footage, that’s not a good day.

Or maybe it is a good day, considering the alternative. In the video above we see Matthew Gough, 25, who is base jumping in Lake Garda, Italy. From the YouTube description: His previous 180 leaps have gone perfectly – but this time his parachute opened backwards and became twisted. He briefly floated before smashing into rocks and hurtled down the cliff face at speeds of 40 mph.

I watched the video a couple of times and didn’t notice any “floating”. More like “Plunging.” He fell an estimated 1,000 feet. Damage: minor injuries to his knees and ankle, released from hospital a few hours later. So you can jump off a 1,000-foot cliff onto rocks and survive? Good to know. Fox News:

“When I hit the floor I was so shocked I was alive,” Gough said. “Everything was going fine and then I pulled the parachute. The problem was the deployment was really slow. It comes down to simple bad luck, nothing else. The conditions were fine, the parachute twisted when it inflated, and it was facing backward.”

As soon as that ACME rocket arrives in the mail, he’s going to try it again.